Time to save the forests

Guest Opinion

By JON CANTAMESSA

Special to The Press

I have been watching the devastating wildfires that have devoured much of Arizona, and I want to sound the alarm. Fires of this magnitude and severity on national forest lands could just as easily occur here in Idaho and throughout much of the Intermountain west if we don't start to take care of the resource. It's time to quit planning, studying and litigating. We need to do something about the deplorable and dangerous conditions that currently exist in our national forests, and we need to do it now.

Study after study indicates that millions of acres of national forests are overcrowded, infested with insects and disease, and ripe for catastrophic wildfires. Every Forest Plan talks about restoring the forest, yet very little work is ever accomplished. Litigation is commonplace over nearly every use of so-called "multiple-use" national forest lands, paralyzing the Forest Service and making responsible management virtually impossible. While we humans are busy squabbling over legal processes, trees continue to grow, fuels continue to accumulate, and our already-overcrowded national forests become even more crowded, stressed and susceptible to catastrophic wildfires.

With every passing decade, wildfires on public lands grow larger in size and cost more to contain. They pollute our air, threaten our watersheds, jeopardize wildlife and destroy habitat, and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars - first to fight the fire, and then to rehabilitate whatever's left. These wildfires waste a tremendous amount of wood that could otherwise be used to create products, energy and jobs from a resource that is sustainable if it is managed properly.

Trees are a dynamic renewable resource and forests systems are resilient. If they are thinned and replanted, forests can provide products and benefits forever. The huge fires in Arizona demonstrate - again - what happens to national forests without active management.

In the past, our national forests contributed to our rural economies and our society. They were good neighbors. National forests paid their way, generated monies for counties, funded local schools, maintained roads and invigorated rural areas. That has all changed. Currently, it is nearly impossible for national forest lands to make money due to planning costs and litigation preparation for almost every timber sale. Consequently, very little fuel-reduction activity is taking place on our public forests. Our national forests used to be blue chip assets - now, they are junk bond liabilities.

Worse yet, the public is becoming complacent after years of this seemingly unbreakable cycle. Catastrophic fires have become the norm rather than the exception. We have come to accept the lack of on-the-ground management, the billion-dollar price tag of firefighting and the wastefulness of the charred forest resources that remain. National forests have moved from providing services and generating wealth to demanding services and wasting resources. This wastefulness hinders our ability as a nation to look to renewable forest resources to solve future resource challenges. While the rest of the world is finding ways to use their forests as an integral part of their renewable energy plans, the United States allows huge tracts of forestland to go up in smoke every year and accepts this as the unchangeable status quo.

Our complacency must come to an end - the sooner, the better. Our nation cannot afford this money-pit management cycle. We need to turn things around and get our nation's forest resources working for us to meet our future needs for products and energy. America should be investing in foresters rather than in firefighters. We should be actively managing our national forests, using and renewing rather than burning and spending and restoring.

We must commit to trying something new. We need to find a way to work in our public forests to improve their health while also manufacturing wood products and American jobs. The resultant reduction in the potential for huge, wasteful, all-consuming wildfires is just the icing on the cake.

Jon Cantamessa is a Shoshone County commissioner. Shoshone County (Idaho) covers 2,636 square miles of mountains and valleys. Fully eighty-seven (87) percent of its land area (or 1,888,941 acres) is classified as "forest uplands." Less than one (1) percent (only 6,027 acres) is "urban or developed."